With radar guns now aimed at baseball players in Australia and Japan, from upper Canada to lower Mexico and on seemingly every ball field in the nearby Dominican Republic, Cuba remains the last frontier for Major League Baseball scouts.
|  | | Sports agents like Joe Cubas, right, have helped Cuban players like Orlando Hernandez, left, strike it rich in the major leagues. But some players, like Joel Pedroso Delgado, center, leave Cuba without ever realizing their dreams. |
And with Cuban pitchers like Livan Hernandez and his half brother Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez helping teams in each of the last four World Series, the league's embargo on scouting players in Cuba hasn't quelled the curiosity of teams in search of top talent.
"(The Commissioner's office) goes on record as saying that they hate what we do and they think it's manipulation," said sports agent Joe Kehoskie, who has helped Cuban defectors gain citizenship in a third country. The process allows the players to become free agents instead of being forced to enter baseball's annual draft. "But then again, the teams themselves, they ring your phones off the hook."
There's no secret why teams are interested in staying tapped into the Cuban player marketplace. The Yankees immediately benefited from signing "El Duque" to a four-year, $6.6 million deal that expires at the end of this season. In Hernandez's first two years, he went 30-13 and had a 3.27 ERA.
"Generally, the impact that Cuban baseball has had on the Yankees has been significant," said Mark Newman, the Yankees' vice president of baseball operations, who said he believes the flow of Cuban players into the United States will increase in the future. "I don't know how many of these World Championship rings we'd have without 'El Duque.' "
If the scouting is complete and the risk pays off, the payback can be huge for teams.
"The financial rewards in the Cuban market potentially are massive," Kehoskie said. "It'd be like having a wall around the United States or a wall around the Dominican Republic for 20 years and plucking Pedro Martinez or Sammy Sosa out of there. And no place else in the world are there players like there are in Cuba that are literally ready-made Major League Baseball players."
Those in the know in Cuba say that there are plenty of Major League-caliber players still in the country. Martin Hacthoun, a Cuban sportswriter, used a Cuban proverb to describes the depth of baseball talent in his country.
"If you have a good crop, you kick the ground and you get lots of potatoes," Hacthoun said. "That applies to Cuba and baseball. You kick the ground, you get lots of ballplayers."
Hacthoun estimates that Major League Baseball clubs can fill two or three starting lineups with Cuban players. Starting with the professional players and on down to the amateurs in the little league and cadets league, there is a wealth of talent that
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If Cuba ever opened up, there would be 30 Major League Baseball teams down there like hogs. Teams would spend money down there like you have never seen. But in order to open it up, it would probably take Castro dying or maybe another revolution. ” |
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— Pat Murphy, the Houston Astros' assistant scouting director |
remains largely untapped. But Hacthoun, who describes himself as an optimist, says he doesn't see the Cuban market opening up in the near future.
"If Cuba ever opened up, there would be 30 Major League Baseball teams down there like hogs," said Pat Murphy, the Houston Astros' assistant scouting director. "Teams would spend money down there like you have never seen. But in order to open it up, it would probably take Castro dying or maybe another revolution."
In the meantime, teams only can scout players on the Cuban national teams in events played outside of Cuba. Although clubs often inquire about attending events like the recent world youth qualifier games in Cuba, Major League Baseball stands firm on its rules. Murphy said the league sent a memorandum two weeks ago to all the teams reminding them not to send scouts to Cuba. Major League Baseball officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.
"We obviously have to adhere to the rules set forth by the commissioner's office," said Bob Engle, the Seattle Mariners' senior advisor to baseball operations. "There's more than baseball involved. It's politics as well."
While teams can track players on the Cuban national teams, players who defect after playing only in Cuba throughout their careers are more difficult for scouts to read in controlled workouts set up by agents.
"It's a real big risk to give a lot of money to a player that defects to a third country based on one workout," said Al Avila, the Florida Marlins' vice president of scouting.
Avila scouted Livan Hernandez based on his performances outside of Cuba while he was with the Cuban junior team and later the national team. Avila also went to see Hernandez play winter league ball in the Dominican Republic before the team signed him.
"Rolando Arrojo, 'El Duque' and Livan Hernandez had a history," Avila said. "The guys coming out now from the interior of the country may have taken a token trip outside (of Cuba) once in a blue moon, but for the most part, no team has seen them. Danys Baez pitched two innings at the Pan American games in Canada and had one workout. I need more information than that to sign him."
While the Marlins took a pass on Baez, the Cleveland Indians did not. Baez signed a four-year, $14.5 million contract with the Indians in 1999.
Some teams still feel the risk is worth it, based on previous experience with Cubans.
"You know (Cuban pitchers) have good savvy, they have good deliveries, they're around the plate and they like to compete in the big stadium in the big games," said Dan Duquette, general manager of the Boston Red Sox, who took Rolando Viera in the seventh round. Taking Viera in the draft is obviously less risky than if the team had to sign him to a free-agent contract based on a hunch.
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People often get overly excited when the word Cuban is attached in front of the word ballplayer. For the most part, it hasn't really been what you would like it to be. ” |
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— Bob Engle, the Seattle Mariners' senior advisor to baseball operations |
But Engle said the Cuban label hasn't had a strong track record recently to forgive the lack of competition in a player's controlled workout.
"People often get overly excited when the word Cuban is attached in front of the word ballplayer," Engle said. "For the most part, it hasn't really been what you would like it to be."
Engle estimates there are enough Cuban players to fill one major-league team, given the talent in the Dominican Republic, a country with a population that is 2.5 million people fewer than Cuba's. "Plus," Engle adds, "Dominican baseball is played in volume, not in a structured league like it is in Cuba, where talented players are brought up in a system."
"The unknown is the most interesting thing about Cuba," said Rick Ragazzo, the San Francisco Giants' coordinator of international operations. Ragazzo played against Cuban third baseman Omar Linares in the mid-1980s, while playing for a professional baseball team in Italy. "Linares could have been hitting with a toothpick and you could see that guy was good."
Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn.com. Tom Farrey, a senior writer for ESPN.com, can be reached at tom.farrey@espn.com.
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